anybody do the whole stock market thing here?
 

hey guys i dont wanna spark up any crazy political talk here, just wanna know if anyone invests in stocks and what they have to say about it.

im 19 and only have a few thousand saved up for college n stuff but since im not gonna be using that money for 5-6 months i figured i could try and invest it and possibly make some money (dont expect to double it or anything maybe just a few hundred.. idk)

every month i put in 1k to my savings account so in theory every month i can invest another thousand to the market and in july-august i can withdraw it all cause thats when im going to be going to college..

can i do all of this online? fidelity? sharbuilder? or something like that
is it really worth it with such a low amount of money?
anyone here have tips tricks or startup info?

like i said i dont wanna start a riot if this is a sensitive subject and i hope it doesnt bother anyone that i talk about my personal finances..

thanks for any help

-Ryan

Lutach is your man

Well, I am not a stock market guy but I invested money with a buddy who used to buy and sell cars. Doubled my money each time we did a deal.... Wish he still did it.

Short term and the stock market do not usually go together, but I am sure Lutach can point you in the right direction. Freaking Genius, and darn good looking too. Watch out ladies!

you've confused me and Lutach, but he's not too shabby either:na:

haha well if you are a genius harold can you lay it down for me? teach me your ways of the stock market.

or are you just good looking? :lol:

well i would pm lutach but the guy is so good looking that his pm box is full of love letters from james and harold

eff what am i gonna do now?

Keep bumping the thread...he'll grab it

I used to do some stock market trading but had since slowed down. I'm more into short-term CD's now. Since you plan to take it out in 5-6 months, I suggest opening up a 26 week CD account so you can withdraw it after 6 months. The return is not as generous compared to stock but CD's are less risky. You can also contact your bank and setup a ladder account which works this way:

http://www.consumerismcommentary.com...sit-cd-ladder/

The info in the link is what I used a few years ago when I set up my ladder certificates.

Hope this helps.

ill look into that in the morning george

but what would the interest rate be on the CDs

prolly only 1-5% right?

Sadly it's now down to between 1-5%.

I'd suggest CD's also. At your age, unless you can afford to lose the money you have, stay out of the stock market. If you have some money that you arent intending to use (such as for school), then you can start buying some stocks. Another thing you might want to look into is the GET prorgram (did I get the right abbreviation there?). You can put in money for college, and it will guarantee your tuition rate at a certain rate...

well this money is not for tuition more so books rent food etc.

basically i wanna have this money as backup incase school gets way tough and i cant work...

my parents have a college fund for me that should last.

so would that GET program help me in my scenario?

Honestly , for a 1% return on a 6mos CD, I doubt Id even bother. On $1000, that only $10. If you need to take the money out for the maturity for any reason, you can't w/ a CD and may have to pay penalties.

Basically I would say, its a hell of a time to be buying stocks right now. Actually 2009 was the best year for stocks we will prolly see in our lifetime (on a broad basis,) however, that doesn't mean the market has a way to go this year if the economy keeps getting better. You can do quite well over 6mos, but only put up money you are willing to loose. Its always a option no matter what stock you buy, so be careful.

However, if you can start investing and saving money at your age, I can't stress how much you will be ahead you will be once you get out of college and start looking for jobs and maybe a house. Many college kids make the mistake of running up huge debts while they are in school, (CC or otherwise) and get out of school with thousands in debt, and end of having to pay that back well through their 20s and 30s. That means they have trouble getting house loans, let alone saving for retirement and gaining all those benefits of compound interest. This is esp true in expense areas of the country like the East coast or CA. I have a lot of colleagues in their early 30's who still live at home as they are still paying debt from college and can't afford to buy houses in expensive NJ area.

So, there are all sorts of ways you can go about investing. Scottrade or other such online service is good, but you kinda need to know what you are doing. You can go to a brokerage and get a broker for some personal help, but trading fees are much higher, but may be worth the cost to avoid doing stupid things and getting recc's on stocks and trading. The timeframe you are working on is pretty tough, who knows what thigns are going to be like in 6mos really, but if you can hold on to the money for a longer term, you can realize some fantastic gains. Doubling you money over a few years is not unrealistic.

In the meantime, if you want to play our stock market game for fun to get an idea of what you are doing, its fun and no cost. :) Lutach is the man.

realistically i wont need all the money i invest for probably a year or so just depends on if i work while im in college.

by the time august hits i should have 10k or more saved up and could potentially use all that to invest.. all that means is that id have to work my first semester up at ASU, which i do not have a problem doing. if my job cuts me loose, school is getting hard, or im just not making enough i can always withdraw all that money since in the stock market there are technically penalties for selling... just selling fees right?

i realize that i am young and obviously have no idea about the stock market but im not going to blow 1k into a stock that i have no clue about. i will research and figure some things out before i actually invest and ive emailed lutach in hopes that he can help me out or possibly be my broker? (not likely but who knows)

anyways thanks for your input!

I'm not the man at all. Finnster is the man.

To be honest, you missed a great Bull run and right now might not be a good time to get in. Some stocks have gained a lot since the lows. Depending on how much you have to invest, it might not be worth it at all. If you wish to play a much better stock market game, join www.wallstreetsurvivor.com. I'm there too and started with $100K and now I'm up to $500K, but that was due to the time I started which was right at the upward move. You have a lot of research to do as I think things have gone up a little too fast in my opinion.

This is the info I sent you via e-mail.

"Number one rule I have:

You can only invest as much as you can afford to loose without putting you or your family into financial turmoil.

With that said, it depends on the time to get into the market. Since the March lows, you missed out on a very good run upward and now only the real players will make money. Playing the stock market is like playing the lottery in some ways. If you still want to gain some experience, see how much it is to get an account at E*Trade, Scottrade, TD Ameritrade or any of the ones that offer online trading with the minimum commission. See what the minimum is to open an account and you are on your way. Make sure you read the fine lines though, call them and ask as many questions as possible. See if they send you some written details incase they fuck you over on the commission and other fees. Do your research and bet on good companies only."

I can't be your broker. You will probably loose your money by using a broker anyways :lol:. They charge you a nice amount when you buy and sell even if you're loosing money. I used to charge $100 for every transaction or 5% which ever was higher. Check out the best online place that suits you and begin your research. One advice and I'll say it again, bet on good companies with solid returns and look for the ones with plenty of cash on hand. I like companies that pays dividends and what ever online service you choose ask them about DRIPs (DRPs) Dividend Reinvestment Plans or DPPs Direct Purchase Plans (It gets very complicated, but it's good to ask questions). This might be the best advice I'll give you that will not make you loose money if the market plays nice. I know Finnster and others will help out as well.

Go to vegas.... put it all on red and then close your eyes and pray!!! LOL


I'm kidding of course. But like everyone says... dont invest what you cant afford to loose. The stock market with a fixed timeline like you are describing may not be a great idea. If the market turns down and you are forced to withdraw then you will be forced to take the loss. You need to have time to ride out the lows and have enough dicipline to sell while you are up to realize your gains. I know people that made alot of money in the market (or so they thought) only to ride the market all the way back down and actually wind up behind where they started. The whole time they thought it would come back but then their time ran out and they needed the money and were forced to get out. Its like educated gambling with the main difference being that the longer you invest, the more likely you are to come out ahead and with gambling the longer you play the more likely you are to loose becasue the odds are against you.

So short term.... put it on red or a big hand of blackjack! LOL

Long term... pick some solid investments, diversify your holdings and dont get stuck in the loop of checking how your money is doing 10 times a day. Think big picture and long term.


EDIT: If you can figure out away to start stashing just 10% of the money you make and investing it for the long term you will be way ahead come the time you are 30, 40,50,60! With investing time is your friend. The longer you have money invested the longer it has to grow and come the time when you want to retire that $1000 you invested when you were 19 will look mighty nice. If you can average 7% anual return on your investments (which historicaly you should be able to manange) the money will double every 7 years so theoretically that $1000 now could be $16,000+ when you are ready to retire and start using it.

EDIT AGAIN: Now if you want to see the real power, invest the amount you invested the prior year plus 7% more each year, and do that for the next 41 years and by the time you are 60 years old you will have over $650,000 dollars! All that from starting with your first $1000 now and some dicipline to keep at it over the years.

START NOW! I wish I had started at your age. Time is your friend, and it runs out faster than you think.

Whenever I need cash, I just pickup on crack dealing and stop whenever I get what I need. Pays bills nicely, you should try it. Remember, be the nice crack dealer, not the scary one. Scares all the suburb kids when you do that. Make sure to smile when you're there too, they like that.

Crack really? I'm more of a ex dealer
everyone who pops ex is happy and as long as your
cliental is happy your happy ;)


I'll reply to everyone else later I'm on my phone right now and it's
difficult to quote n stuff

thanks for all your replies
I got alot of research to do

Wow. If one could make real hard cash selling crack, everybody would be doing it. If crack dealers were smart enough and knew how much money real investors make, they would stop selling crack in a heart beat. I don't invest for myself anymore, but I do it for another person. I'm a poor bastard just to make sure that person is set for life. That person makes more in a day then many crack dealers make in a year. Smart money will always beat illegal money. Lets try and keep this about stocks and helping one invest in his future. It that was a joke, it needed some of these: :lol::rofl::whistle::party::na:.

Better? :mdr:

I read this book: http://www.amazon.com/Aftershock-You...2916714&sr=8-2

Basically goes to say that we are headed for a "mega-depression" which will last 20 years once the US$ and debt bubble pops within 1-3 years time. This is the author's 2nd book after the 1st book, which was published in 2006, accurately predicted the fiasco which happened 2008-2009. Opinions?

I told a few people about this, but I'm hoping it doesn't happen. At the moment it seems that foreign investors are flocking to the Brasilian market and if our Government doesn't stop them, they'll drive the Brasilian economy to the ground. I hope Brasil doesn't depend only on the BOVESPA. I find it funny how the industry just fired people here in the US based on the stock market and then we see many companies posting nice profits, but they're not calling people back to work. If the US wants to export more, it needs to hire more. So I'm hoping it doesn't get really bad.

man you make it sound so easy! are you talking about CD investments or long term stocks or what?

i would like to start saving like you mentioned because i would love to retire at 50 with a few hundred thousand in savings.



so it sounds as if right now the stock market is not the wisest decision.. i have a few other tricks up my sleeve in how to use my money.. nothin terribly illegal :whistle:

anyways i appreciate all the help!

If you do your homework you can make some $$$. I was going to mention a risky stock to you, but if it went down, I would've felt bad. The best thing is to do your research on good companies that pays dividends. Keep them for as long as you can and you should retire in good shape. The market might go down again, so you should play carefully. I know a lot of guys that makes a good chuck of change day trading, but it can be very addicting specially if you're making money. Try and keep out of the Pinksheets, OTC or Penny stocks. The company I was going to mention was GM or MTLQQ which was somewhat low and going down everyday, but the news came out with the new GM battery factory that started production, the stock went up. You can make some money there, but you can also loose it all if the company you invest in gets out. A good example can be found in the stock game a few of us are playing. I bought some CIT thinking it would stay there for a while, but man I was wrong. Lost a good amount of money there.

thanks for the info luciano

No problem. Look around a other types of things that can give you a nice return such as High Yield Bond, ETFs and a few others can give you solid returns.

In one sense its a great time to be in the market as there is a lot of volitility, and you need moving prices to make money. OTOH there is a lot going on and you need to be careful on what you buy/invest in, as there are sharp gains up as well as down.

I think one of the biggest lessons to be learned in all this is one has to be vigilant and really watch their investments. I believe I read the avg return for many mutual funds over the last 1yrs is 2%. Granted things were way up, and now way down, but if you were planning to retire soon, like a number of baby boomers, a number of them are going into retirement with decimated retirement accounts that they may not have the time to wait out for the rebound back up. OTOH, don't count on having pensions from your job (they are nearly extinct) and I'm not counting on SS to fund my retirement either. Who knows what shape it will be in in 40 yrs.

So, you have to look out for yourself. The earlier you start the better off you will be and will have the benefit of time to recover from mistakes. Don't get too caught up in trends (usually doing the opposite of the crowd or your instincts/emotions is better ironically,) don't be too risky, but don't be so timid you never make up making any money either.
Seriously. So many people never save any money, get to retirement age and realize they are going to be broke. The avg baby boomer is retiring w/ savings = to less than a yr's worth of their working salary. Maybe I should invest in Fancy Feast, as a lot of these bitches are gonna be eating a lot of cat food.

Finnster is correct. Listen to him.

One thing to look for when you're doing your research is if the company you invest in is buying back their stock. That is a sign the stock is very cheap and there's good money to be made. When you sign up with a good online trading place they offer tools that lets you see how large the blocks of stocks being bought or sold are. The larger it is tells you a big investor, institution or any of the market makers are going to move the stock up or down. Like Finnster said, sometimes doing the opposite is good specially when the stock is going down, but the company is buying back their shares. I don't follow anyone and go one guts alone. I will sit on a stock forever up or down until I feel the need to get rid of it. I might even buy more when it's down or have a feeling it's going up by how the market is feeling. Green is all the hype now and it might stay for a while until it's bubble bursts.

thanks guys ^^

heres a question.. looking into the high yield bonds, mutual funds, and ETFs it seems that all charts shown give a given 10000 dollar investment.

is this just the typical number invested or is this what is needed?

The more is always better and it should pay off over time. Why don't you start out with $1000 just buying stocks online to get a feels of things and learn as much as you can about other types of investment fora long term solid return. Most of the online places I know offers free phone support, so when you call ask them all the questions you have.

that sounds good. i wont need that 1000 for a while so i can keep it in the stocks for longer.

I was also going to mention gold. You can buy a real ounce (Not just on paper), but the real deal and save it for a while until it reaches a price you're comfortable with and sell it. Even though I don't think metals should be as high as they are now, it might work out ok. I remember buying this stuff at a cheap price lol and oil at $20, so you know how things went :lol:.

Edit: Silver too might look good. Check them out.